Pacific pivots on China

Dawn Blitz military exercise fueled regional tensions, aspirations

Japanese Defense Forces ground , air and sea units participated in a joint exercise with US Marines in the ongoing "Dawn Blitz" exercises at San Clemente Island on June17, 2013. The exercised for the day included "taking an airfield" where Marines did the initial assault then handed off to Japanese forces and an amphibious assault ship landing of vehicles and supplies from a ship to the island.
— John Gibbins

Japanese Defense Forces ground , air and sea units participated in a joint exercise with US Marines in the ongoing "Dawn Blitz" exercises at San Clemente Island on June17, 2013. The exercised for the day included "taking an airfield" where Marines did the initial assault then handed off to Japanese forces and an amphibious assault ship landing of vehicles and supplies from a ship to the island.
— John Gibbins

What does San Clemente Island, a military training range off the San Diego coast, have in common with an uninhabited archipelago nearly 7,000 miles away in the East China Sea?

The desolate outcroppings on either side of the Pacific Rim have become flash points in the last year between the world’s three largest economies, as the United States, Japan and China jockey for power and influence in the region.

The cross-drifts over Asia Pacific converged this month on San Clemente Island during a joint exercise by U.S. and Japanese armed forces.

Japan’s deepening security alliance with the U.S., waning support for restrictions on its self-defense forces, and growing interest in amphibious operations were all on display.

In the backdrop was the U.S. pivot, or rebalance, of military resources to the Pacific amid the drawdown in Afghanistan and postwar Iraq.

All of which leads to China.

The United States, which has about 87,000 troops, dependents and civilian Defense Department employees stationed in Japan, has been prodding Japan for decades to do more to secure the region.

Japan is stepping up now because of the rise of China, said Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu and frequent visitor to Japan.

“A very strong China with military capabilities combined with an intention that seems unfriendly toward the Japanese” has recast popular sentiment in Japan about its armed forces, Roy said.

Restrictions enshrined in the constitution after World War II would forbid Japan from shooting down a North Korean missile heading for American territory, for example. Now the perennial debate about those limitations is shifting, with support building for a bill that would permit Japan to defend not only its own territory but that of an important ally.

“A couple decades ago it was easy for Japan to think, ‘Oh we don’t need to do more, we are secure enough.’ But in recent years the combination of North Korea and especially China, because China is a longer-term concern, has made the Japanese feel their immediate external environment is a little scarier,” Roy said.

Island chain

The tectonic shift reconfiguring the strategic map for the U.S. and its Asia Pacific friends and foes erupted last year over the island chain called Senkaku in Japan, Diaoyu in China and Tiaoyutai in Taiwan.

All three countries claim the barren rocks nestled in lucrative fishing grounds, shipping lanes and potential oil and gas reserves. The sovereignty dispute dates to before the first Sino-Japanese War of 1895.

Japan long administered the islands, which were privately owned. Then the Tokyo mayor, a man known for nationalist sentiments against both China and the U.S., announced plans to purchase the islands for his prefecture and develop them.

The Japanese national government, saying it wanted to calm tensions and stop construction on the islands, bought them instead in September. Widespread protests erupted in China, which saw the purchase as a unilateral move staking a claim.

Both governments had tried to defuse potential conflicts when their citizens boated out to the islands to plant their national flags. Now naval patrols cruise nearby, exacerbating tensions during what has been called the most serious threat of military altercation between the two countries since World War II.